Gene that stops tumors may lead to new cancer drugs

Researchers at UC San Diego have uncovered new information about a gene that stops the spread of a fast-growing cancer. KPBS reporter Beth Ford Roth has the story.

The gene is called "Caspase-8." It stops the spread of aggressive malignant tumors from metastasizing, or traveling, to different organs and tissues in the body.

Dr. David Cherish with the Moores UCSD Cancer Center says researchers have discovered the most invasive and deadly cancers have the ability to turn-off Caspase-8.

Moores: "When these are turned off, there is a turn-on if you will of the metastatic property of the tumor, and so we're going to search for genes like this that affectively we call metastasis suppressors.'"

Cherish says information researchers have uncovered about THE GENE-8 can hopefully be used to create new drug therapies for highly metastatic cancers like neuroblastoma, melanoma, and pancreatic cancer. Neuroblastoma is one of the most aggressive of childhood cancers.
Beth Ford Roth, KPBS news.